SNAP
Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The President's Budget request also assumes some significant improvements in SNAP/Food Stamps' ability to serve low-income households, including jobless persons seeking work in a difficult labor market. The budget assumes an extension of the economic recovery act's (ARRA) suspension of time limits on the receipt of SNAP/Food Stamps for certain jobless adults without dependents (an estimated 14,000 participants); exclusion of refundable tax credits from countable SNAP income and assets in the month of receipt and for the following 12 months (an estimated 7,000 participants beginning in tax year 2009); and increasing the asset limit in federally-funded programs for certain populations to $10,000 (increasing the current SNAP/Food Stamp asset limits of $2,000 for most households and $3,000 for elderly and disabled person households -- estimated to affect 230,000 SNAP/Food Stamp participants).

For Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization, the President’s budget proposes $10 billion over ten years in additional funding. According to the budget, the additional investments will be “aimed at ending childhood hunger, reducing childhood obesity, and improving the diets of children, and raising program performance to better serve our children.”